According to my definitions, Latchmere Close is in Kingston but the sign for it is on Church Road so is in Ham. However, the sign was not the purpose of this photo, I took it for the colourful flowers that braved the March snow.

The old part of Lock Road, i.e. the part nearest Ham Common, is quite delightful. Not only are (most of) the houses attractive but many of the gardens are carefully designed, particularly on the north side where the front gardens are a little bigger.

I like this view of the back of South Lodge, taken from Bishop Close, because it shows a curious mix of windows and doors that is a complete contrast to the uniformity that the front of the building presents to Ham Common.

On the corner of Lock Road and Craig Road there is a terrace of houses that is set back from the road with a path across the front that splits all of their front gardens. The gardens are well kept and bounded by some nice walls so the overall effect is very attractive.

The recent heavy rains seem to have been too much for the drainage system on Dukes Avenue by Dysart Avenue. Here the water is running out of the grass bank, across the pavement and in to the road, as if fleeing from some monster hidden in the bushes.

This alley is behind the cottages on Petersham road and goes from near to the junction with Sandy Lane all the way up to Meadlands Drive. In doing so it separates the cottages from the main part of their gardens so as you walk along it you feel as though you are wandering somewhere that you are not meant to be.

26 March 2008

There is nothing like a stile to show that you are deep in the country. This one helps walkers down by the river, near Petersham Lodge Woods. It takes you from Douglas Footpath (i.e. the path behind Douglas House / the German School) on to what may be part of Great River Avenue.

Bishop Close winds its way off the north side of Ham Common where it conceals a collection of maisonettes, unlike any other houses in Ham. The developers are to be thanked for using a mix of bricks so that each block of four maisonettes is a slightly different colour than its neighbours which gives each block more of an individual feel and reduces the "sameness" of the close overall.

The Royal Oak (on the corner of Ham Street and Sandy Lane) has a small beer garden that is a delightful sun-trap in Summer. I'll take a picture of it when it is warmer but for now here is a picture of the advertising sign for it which has a nice clean modern style.

25 March 2008

This is part of the fortifications at Ham House, which I suspect are more for decoration than anything else. There is a ditch before the wall and railings that go along the front of the house and these impressive spikes are on each corner of the railings. This set has some decorative spikes on the top.

Ham is full of disused gates and doors that point to a time lost when people had different journeys to make. This is probably my favourite gate and can be found at the end of Evelyn Road where it used to allow passage to what is now the playing fields of Grey Court School.

24 March 2008

Old Ham Lodge is at the river-end of Ham Street, opposite Riverside Drive, and backs on to Ham House. It is somewhat overshadowed by its more illustrious neighbours, which is a pity as it is a fine building in its own right.

Daffodils have been planted in many of the grassy areas in Richmond and Kingston but, for some reason, this stretch along Petersham Road and just south of Sandy Lane is home to a colourful collection of crocuses.

This is another view of the quaint but not very old gate house that leads to the long straight path to the back of Ham House. In some Richmond Council documents this is called Petersham Avenue but the new black sign says that it is one of the Ham Avenues.

There are three gates at Teddington Lock so that the amount of the lock that moves up/down can be adjusted. There used to be only one bridge across to the island and that was on the southern (upstream) gate. Now there is a second bridge across on the middle gate.

19 March 2008

The beauty of being in charge of this blog is that I get to make all the decisions, in particular I have defined the geographic boundaries that I am working to. For example, I include the newish Royal Park Gate development in my definition of Ham even though it is (currently) in the borough of Kingston upon Thames.

The other contentious boundary is Petersham and here I show where I think the southern boundary of Petersham is. This is based on the evidence on the ground gathered from walking all of these streets regularly.

Note that my definition of Ham includes part of Petersham as I include everything either side of Petersham Road until the juction with Star and Garter Hill. This is because that is a natural boundary and before that there is a continuous built up area that includes all of Ham and this part of Petersham.

This door in Boxall Cottages on Ham Common is hiding behind a large bush as if lying in wait for some unsuspecting person to pass when it can leap out and transport them to another world. Or have I watched Monsters Inc. too many times?!

17 March 2008

This is one of the houses on the north-west side of Ham Common and what really attracted me to take the picture was the climbing plant that has twisted around itself several times as if it had a difficult adolescence.

16 March 2008

I am not that tall so all I could see of the side of Gordon House (on Ham Common) over the brick wall as I walked past was the tops of the two gate posts so I pointed my camera blindly over the wall and took this picture on speculation and was rewarded with this view showing more Georgian grandeur than I expected.

I like the way that the wide frontage of the house hides the depth behind and am amused that even those extra rooms are not enough so an extension has been added at the back.

The work on Great South Avenue continues, this time it is volunteers working on a Sunday. So far all the work has been clearing and so the path now looks wide, empty and boring. I hope that the planting to come will improve things but am not optimistic.

15 March 2008

I don't know how construction companies choose the colour for their plastic barriers but these on the junction of Dukes Avenue and Northweald Lane are a rather viloent blue, the ones further down Dukes Avenue are bright orange and elsewhere we are treated to the insipid light blue of a football team from the lower divisions.

The work on Morgans is finally coming to a close and part of this is the repair of the brick wall that faces directly onto Ham Common. I am pleased that they are repairing the wall rather than replacing it but I do wish that they had used darker bricks so that the difference between the original wall and the repair was less obvious.